Walking heel for plaster casts



March 7, 1967 y H. w. BLossER 3,307,536

WALKING HEELv FOR PLASTER CASTS l Filed July 15, 1964 INVENTOR. Y Howard IA( @lasser Jy. 6 l BY d,

United States Patent() 3,307,536 WALKING HEEL FOR PLASTER CASTS Howard W. Blosser, 2418 Wall St., Joplin, Mo. 64801 Filed July 1S, 1964, Ser. No. 382,827 3 Claims. (Cl. 12S-83.5)

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in walking heels adapted for use fby ambulatory patients having a foot and ankle encased in a plaster cast, such walking heels commonly being aixed to the sole of the foot portion of the cast in order to facilitate walking.

The principal object of the present invention is the provision of a walking heel of the character described having novel means for insuring its proper placement with respect to the normal support line of the patients leg, whereby to provide greater ease and comfort in walking. The normal shape and contour of the patients foot is often so concealed and camouflaged by the cast that the heel is applied slightly out of proper position, with the result that balancing and walking thereon is difficult and uncomfortable.

Another object is the provision of a walking heel of the character described which eliminates the necessity of Ibuilding up thesole surface of the cast to a flat, planar contour preparatory to applying the Walking heel thereto, whereby application of the heel is rendered faster, simpler and more convenient.

A further object is the provision of a walking heel of the character described which, While secured to the cast with additional plaster in the conventional manner, may be so secured with a smaller amount of additional plaster than has heretofore been possible, thereby reducing the total Iweight of heavy casts. This weight reduction is of course very important to ambulatory patients, to whom the weight of heavy casts is very fatiguing.

Other objects are simplicity and economy of construction, etliciency and dependability of operation, and ease .and convenience of usage.

With these objects in View, as well as other objects which will appear in the course of the specification, reference will be had to the accompanying drawing, where- 1n:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a patients foot and lower leg encased in a plaster cast, and having a walking heel embodying the present invention applied thereto, portions of the plaster cast being broken away,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line II-II of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the walking heel,

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the Walking heel, partially broken away,

FIG. 5 is an end elevational view of the walking heel, and

FIG. 6 is an inverted plan view of .the walking heel.

Like reference numerals apply to similar parts throughout the several views, and the numeral 2 applies to a patients foot and lower leg to which a plaster cast 4 has been applied in the ordinary way. Usually, the plaster is supplied impregnated in a crinoline textile bandage which is first thoroughly wetted, then wrapped evenly about `the foot and leg to a substantially uniform thickness, and -allowed to set. Since it is of uniform thickness it follows the contour of the foot. Insofar as the present invention is concerned, the salient point here involved is that the instep 6 of the cast has a concave contour more or less faithfully following the contour of the instep 8 of the patients foot.

The walking heel forming the subject matter of the present invention is designated generally by the numeral 10, and constitutes a single integral m-ass of rubber or other suitable resilient material. It includes a rectangular planar platform 12 adapted to be placed against the 3,307,536 Patented Mar. 7, 1967 sole of cast 4 with its major dimension disposed longitudinal-ly of the foot, a cleat 14 depending from said platform, and a rounded protuberance 16 projecting upwardly from the top surface of said platform.

Cleat 14 is of the same width 4as platform 12, which is somewhat narrower than the patients foot, and is elongated longitudinally of the platform, being shorter than the 'platform and disposed centrally between the ends thereof, whereby the end portions of said platform constitute lips 18 facilitating attachment of heel 10 to cast 4, as will presently appea-r. `Also, cleat 14 is divided midway between its forward and rearward ends by a transverse slot 20. The lower end surface of the cleat is convexly curved about a horizontal axis disposed transversely to an well above platform 12, in order to permit the cleat to roll on the iloor as the patient walks. Said convex cleat surface also has ridges 22 formed .therein to provide a non-skid grip on the iloor. Said ridges may be of any desired pattern.

Protuberance 16 on the top surface of platform 12 is convexly rounded in contour, being thickest at the midpoint of one of the longer edges of the platform, and being centered between `the forward and rearward ends of said platform. Transversely, it extends slightly more than half the width of the platform.

In application, the walking heel is placed against the sole of cast 4, with protuberance 16 engaging in instep contour 6 of the cast, and is secured in place by plaster 24, usually in the form of plaster bandage wrapped about cast 4 so as to pass under lips 18 and through notch 20 of the heel. After plaster 24 has been allowed to set, the patient may walk. In FIGS. 1 and 2, plaster 24 has been cross-hatched to distinguish it from the plaster of cast 4, to indicate that it is applied at a different time. However, it Will be understood that once plaster 24 has been applied, it forms an integral mass with cast 4.

The walking heel thus described will be seen to possess several novel advantages as compared to prior walking heels, these advantages being provided by the protuberance 16. First-ly, the engagement of said protuberance in the instep contour 6 of cast 4 provides automatically for proper placement of `the heel directly in line with the normal support line S-S of the patients leg, this line being centered with respect to the instep as indicated in FIG. 1. This alignment is very important, since even relatively slight errors in the placement of the heel can result in considerably muscle strain, discomfort and fatigue to the wearer. In all prior walking heels within my knowledge .the upper surface of the platform thereof has been planar, and it has lbeen common practice to build up cast 4 to provide a planar surface for engaging and properly supporting said platform. The heel was then placed almost necessarily by eye, since the exact position and shape of the foot was largely camouflaged by the cast, and such placement was often inaccurate. Such hee-ls were often accompanied by such vague instructions as place the heel slightly behind the center of the cast. My 'protuberance 16 provides quite automatically for proper positioning of the heel.

Secondly, with the prior art heels having platforms with planar upper surf-aces, the necessary building-up of the sole of the cast to a planar configuration to provide solid support for the platform was .a rather tedious process usually accomplished by filling in the instep concavity 6 with a shaped wadding of plaster bandage, and securing said Wadding in place with additional plaster bandage wrapped about the body of the cast. All necessity for this time-consuming step is eliminated by the protuberance 16 of the present heel, and may heel therefore may be applied much more rapidly and conveniently.

Thirdly, the filling-in or levelling process described above necessarily involves the addition of considerably more plaster to the cast than just the wadding required to fill the instep contour, `the excess `being the plaster required to -x the wadding in place. Plaster is of course heavy, and any excess plaster simply increases the total weight of the cast, which the patient must of course lift and carry as he walks. Therefore, since `the present heel eliminates the necessity of the cast levelling, it permits the use of a lighter weight cast which is correspondingly less fatiguing to the patient.

While I have described and claimed a specic embodiment of rny invention, it will be readily apparent that many minor changes of structure and operation could be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A walking heel for plaster casts comprising a onepiece integral member formed of resilient material and including:

(a) a generally planar and rectangular platform adapted to be positioned and secured against the sole of plaster cast encasing a patients foot, beneath the concave instep contour of said cast, and with its major axis extending parallel to the longitudinal midiline of the foot,

(b) a ground-engaging cleat depending from said platform, and

(c) an upwardly convex protuberance on the upper surface of said platform and shaped to engage snugly in the instep contour of the sole of said cast, whereby said cleat is positioned longitudinally of the wearers foot in positive relation to the transverse vertical plane of this weight-support line of the wearers leg.

2. A walking heel for plaster casts as recited in claim 1 wherein the lower or ground-engaging surface of said cleat is downwardly convex, being curved about an axis parallel to the minor -axis of said platform, whereby only a limited area of said lower cleat surface engages the ground at any one time.

3. A walking heel for plaster casts as recited in claim 1 wherein the ilower or ground-engaging surface of said cleat is downwardly convex, being curved about an axis parallel to the minor axis of said platform, whereby only a limited area of said lower cle-at surface engages the ground at any one time, and wherein` the transverse vertical plane of said platform including the lowermost point of the convex curvature of said lower cleat surface is coincident with the transverse vertical plane of the platform including the thickest portion of said protu'berance, whereby the lowermost point of said lowercleat surface is aligned with the weight-support line of the wearers leg. v

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,634,720 4/1953 Wright 12S-83.5 2,888,919 6/1959 Unkauf l28-83.5 3,068,861 12/1962 Hoopes 12S-83.5 3,198,192 8/1965 OBrien 12S-83.5y

RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

J. W. HINEY, I R., Assistant Examiner. 

1. A WALKING HEEL FOR PLASTER CASTS COMPRISING A ONEPIECE INTEGRAL MEMBER FORMED OF RESILIENT MATERIAL AND INCLUDING: (A) A GENERALLY PLANAR AND RECTANGULAR PLATFORM ADAPTED TO BE POSITIONED AND SECURED AGAINST THE SOLE OF PLASTER CAST ENCASING A PATIENT''S FOOT, BENEATH THE CONCAVE INSTEP CONTOUR OF SAID CAST, AND WITH ITS MAJOR AXIS EXTENDING PARALLEL TO THE LONGITUDINAL MIDLINE OF THE FOOT, (B) A GROUND-ENGAGING CLEAT DEPENDING FROM SAID PLATFORM, AND (C) AN UPWARDLY CONVEX PROTUBERANCE ON THE UPPER SURFACE OF SAID PLATFORM AND SHAPED TO ENGAGE SNUGLY IN THE INSTEP CONTOUR OF THE SOLE OF SAID CAST, WHEREBY SAID CLEAT IS POSITIONED LONGITUDINALLY OF THE WEARER''S FOOT IN POSITIVE RELATION TO THE TRANSVERSE VERTICAL PLANE OF THIS WEIGHT-SUPPORT LINE OF THE WEARER''S LEG. 